The aim of this site is to offer advice and bring together individuals in Engineering,Science and technology Fields , to share their experiences and also share opportunities available to both the young ladies and the young men in those fields.

It’s been established that organizations, governments and universities around the world award scholarships worth millions of dollars to African students to study for undergraduate, masters and PhD every year. With AfterschoolAfrica.com scholarship database, finding a scholarship is easier than ever. It’s “Search; and ye shall find”.

The next stage of the awareness is for students who need these scholarships to understand how to apply and take advantage of these opportunities.

In this article, you’ll learn the general guideline to apply for scholarships – especially international scholarships.

As a student looking to study outside your country, your first step is to consider which country or region you want to study. Do you want to study in UK, USA, Asia or Australia? At least 18 months before you intend to gain admission, focus your scholarship research on the country or region where you want to study. That way you’ll have enough time to gather required documents.

Look within your country.

A number of scholarships originate locally. There are government and company scholarships for citizens to study abroad. Ask and find out about them from your friends and colleagues. Emmanuel learnt about PTDF scholarship – Nigeria – from a colleague at his work place. He ended up winning a scholarship to study for Masters at University of Manchester UK.

Get your test scores and required documents ready

It’s common for international scholarship programs to require that students meet certain test score; TOEFL, IELTS, SAT, GMAT or GRE. For some scholarship programs, if you don’t have the required test result, you will not be eligible to apply. Register and take the required test and get your score ready. Start gathering other required documents – transcript, certificates, identification letters – ready.

Ask – Am I eligible for a scholarship

It is important to note that there are no general rules to be eligible for scholarships. Each scholarship program has its unique application requirements. Some scholarships require students to have a certain TOEFL or IELTS score; that you are from a certain country; that you have a certain Grade Point Average. Once you identify a scholarship program, read through the guidelines to see if you are eligible to apply.

Be in the process of admission

Most scholarship providers require that candidates must have admission or be in the admission process to be considered for scholarship. In such case, your scholarship application will not be considered if you have not been offered a conditional or unconditional admission at a university. Some scholarships however require that you apply for admission and scholarship at the same time. The point is that, in most cases, you cannot be awarded a scholarship before an admission.

Know what scholarship sponsors want and give it to them

A scholarship application often contains the selection criteria, but you should go deeper. Research the scholarship sponsor on the web. Look for the organization’s mission statement, which you’ll often find in the “About Us” section of its website. Strive to know what they are looking for in a scholarship awardee. Position yourself within that ideal.

Apply to every eligible scholarship.

Believe it or not, many scholarships go unawarded each year.

“…But we had no eligible applicants. The same thing happened with some engineering scholarships–we failed to award all we had to offer for lack of applicants,” said Mary Ann Eiff Co-Chair scholarship committee for Women in Aviation.

Don’t ignore the small funds. Some scholarships worth $1,000 or less may be less competitive, which could give you more advantage.

Write winning essay if required

Applying for scholarships that require submitting an essay can increase your chance of success if you put in the effort to write a winning easy. Let your passion resonate with the scholarship committee members. Be personal. Reveal who you are and why you deserve a scholarship more than everyone else. Don’t sound pitiful. Instead emphasize on how you solved a problem or overcame adversity in your life. And how you believe you can do even more if given a scholarship.

Follow Guidelines and attend to details

Most professions require attention to details. Scholarship providers take this seriously when considering the right applicant for a scholarship award. How you prepare your application speaks loudly about how detail-oriented you are. Think about it. Who will want to assist an aspiring medical doctor achieve his dream when he/she cannot follow simple instructions? You may be surprised to hear that a large number of scholarship applications do not adhere to the application guidelines. Stand out. Go the extra miles to provide all required documents, including recommendation letters. Submit a meticulously completed application.

Search for and contact past scholarship winners

A number of scholarship sponsors publish the names and press releases of winners. Find a way to reach the winners. You can search on social media. Contact them for questions and advice. You never know what you can learn from their experience.

Submit your application early

Some scholarship programs just require you to complete an application form online or offline. Others require specially written piece of work. However, just make sure you submit your application and required documents before the deadline.

The gvSIG-Training e-Learning platform opens its registration period for the “Basic GIS with gvSIG” MOOC in English, given by the gvSIG Association and GISMAP.

This MOOC aims to show the use and potentiality of the open source software gvSIG in performing the most common operations during the workflow in a GIS environment. This Course is addressed to beginners as well as to skilled GIS users who want to learn how to use this software.

It will start in November 24th, and it will last four weeks with an approximate participant’s engagement of thirty hours during the whole course period.

Course attendance is completely free of charge. Students who successfully complete the course and wish to receive the Certificate of Achievement, corresponding to 30 credits for gvSIG Certification program, will be asked for a contribution of 40 Euros.

The IEEE workshop that happened on Saturday, 25th October, was graced by Engineers both professionals and faculty members, social scientists,business and industry leaders ,Policy Makers as well as Engineering students from different Universities in Kenya. A big shout out and thank you to the organizers, IEEE kenya Section and IEEE Education Activities!

The major perspective of the whole event was to seek solutions, and ways in which to improve the Engineering Education in Kenya, by incorporating the continuous evolution of trends in Engineering and Technology , in both inside and outside the classroom, focusing on Industry and employer Expectations, social and societal challenges et al. Nevertheless, the case would apply to any other African country.

Further, Most speakers however insisted of the aspect of incorporating what is needed in the economy rather that being mainstream on trends just because it is what everyone is practicing.

Prof. Michael Lightner -(Associate Vice President For Academic Affairs, University of Colorado ) specifically, emphasized that as much as we may want to incorporate cutting edge technology in most industries, or whatever processes of Engineering that require it, the community of people that are going to use this technology also matters. “The technology should incorporate the different cultures or activities of this individuals rather than trying to compete with them”. He also was able to showcase the top Universities in the world that offer Engineering and what their different approaches on teaching and learning Engineering is like. The Universities were quite diverse but what stood in Most of them was the aspect of innovation and building sustainable solution to existing societal problems.

From the presentation by Prof. Lightner, (Global Trends in Engineering, Computing and Technology Education ) and even during networking sessions, most attendees were agreeing to the twitching or having an overhaul on the system of teaching Engineering and Technology in Kenya.

Prof. David Some from the Commission of University Education in Kenya on the other hand insisted on sustainable development for the education system in Kenya, of which his commission was trying to achieve, particularly in Engineering. “Engineering drives the economy and hence it is a budding discipline that should be well handled and taught in order to achieve its functionality”

Prof . Saurabh Sinha- (Vice President,IEEE Educational activities;Executive Dean Faculty Of Engineering and Built Environment, University Of Johannesburg ) whose topic of discussion was ‘sustainable Engineering Education’ Started off with some statistics on both Engineering Enrollment at Universities in the world and those who really venture into Engineering even after Graduation. The statistics were quite shocking especially in Kenya where the ratio of one Engineer is to a population of 6ooo people as compared to Europe which is mostly 1:300. This explains a lot on the feedback regarding Engineering and Technology in Kenya. Most of his sentiments were building on what the previous speakers were insistent about. He finished off by letting out a challenge to everyone to be the change they want to see in the world,basing this on the driving force activities that IEEE administers at community level in different parts of the world.

On Engineering Programme Accreditation ( The international Engineering alliance Approach based on Graduate Attributes)- Prof. Hu, Hanrahan-( chair, Washington Accord, Emeritus Professor and Visiting Professor, School Of Electrical Engineering and Information Engineering, University Of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg ), talked about the Washington Accord, which is an international agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting engineering degree programs and which recognizes the substantial equivalency of programs accredited by those bodies and recommends that graduates of programs accredited by any of the signatory bodies be recognized by the other bodies as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering.

Professor Koi Tirima-(Vice Chancellor, International University Of Professional Studies) , Presented on the pedagogical Practices and the importance of embracing innovations in pedagogy that enhance and promote critical thinking and problem solving in STEM and especially In Engineering Education.

All the sessions by every speaker were followed by many challenging questions from the attendees of which the speakers answered satisfactorily and could even not take other questions due to limited time. This is evident that the sessions or the entire event impacted not only positively to those who attended but also posed a challenge to them. Everything had to change including the mindset of everyone in the Engineering field and those in other fields that were in attendance.

The day’s event was summarized by a panelists of Diverse educational backgrounds on blended learning and also general questions from the attendees, with the major perspective or focus being, ‘Towards quality education’. The panelists included; Prof. Robert Gateru, Prof. Michael Lightner ,Prof. Meoli Karshoda and Prof Saurabh Sinha

This was followed by a breakout session where different individuals(attendees), were grouped and given the liberty to chart Up the future of Engineering in Kenya and the way forward. These points were pointed out and put in record for future reference.

Finally the event came to a close with a keynote Speaker From Dr. Peggy Oti-Boateng ,-(Senior Programme Specialist for S&T, UNESCO Office, Nairobi.) She focused on the topic -‘Making Engineering Work For Africa and the role of the young African Engineer. She insisted that the female Engineers should be helped as much as possible by their male counter parts to avoid imbalance in gender in the field and also wastage of the Engineering knowledge acquired due to pressure from family matters et al. She also noted that very few young people in the Engineering field in Africa do take risks. Most of them like their comfort zone, an aspect which is not helping most economies in Africa. She Also emphasized on the art of Creating as Engineers rather than being consumers.

“Innovation by the young people in the Engineering and Technology Field in Africa needs to be a necessity rather than an Option ”

Adopting a simple habit of being more strategic about how you manage your work will help bring increased focus and improved performance

We are busy. And we’re only getting busier. All the tech tools that were supposed to help us break free from the office have wound up keeping us online and working virtually 24/7. Rather than succumbing to that mad scramble, however, I recommend adopting a simple habit of being more strategic about how you manage your work, to help bring increased focus and improved performance.

Most people just assume that being overly busy and scattered is the nature of business. While some small tweaks to your schedule and trying to stay more focused may not result in less to do, you will experience increased impact, less stress and more joy from your work, rather than letting it burn you out.
With that in mind, here are five strategies that can help a heavy load become more productive:

1. Stop doing work that is not aligned with your talent.

This seems obvious, but you would be surprised by how many entrepreneurs are doing work that doesn’t excite them–that they aren’t good at anyway. That ends up being draining and they start to question why they started a business to begin with. For example, managing operations when you’re really best at sales. You need to be diligent, especially in a growing business, that you are not taking on responsibilities misaligned with what you are good at. Either hire someone to do the work or give it to someone on your team that is better suited for it. Bringing in the right people, who you trust to get the job done, helps alleviate feeling responsible for everything. If you are a solo entrepreneur, then take things like sales and operations and design your approach to them via your talent. Make them “your” approach to the work.

2. Be discerning when you book meetings.

Don’t attend meetings where your perspective or participation is not completely essential. Watch out for the tendency to participate only because you have been asked. Make sure that you can contribute and that there is a clear objective to any meeting. Otherwise, cancel or decline.

3. Schedule time for thinking.

Most people run from task to task without setting aside time for thinking. Either create a habit of setting aside time every day to think or schedule it during your day as a “meeting” with yourself.

4. Ask yourself, why are you so busy?

By examining, every week, what is causing such a busy schedule, you can create a strategy to address it. Taking some time to understand what’s causing your personal bottleneck may add to the load in the short term, but figuring out what your capacity is–and learning not to take too much on–can save you time in the long run.

5. Stop multitasking.

“People can’t multitask very well, and when people say they can, they’re deluding themselves,” neuroscientist Earl Miller told NPR in an interview several years ago. He added, “The brain is very good at deluding itself.” Miller, a Picower professor of neuroscience at MIT, says that for the most part, we simply can’t focus on more than one thing at a time. So if you find you’re multitasking, you may think that’s the solution for getting more done–but that alone can be the reason for feeling busy and losing focus.

At the end of the day, there will always be endless amounts of work you can be doing, but if you follow the five strategies above, you may find that managing your bandwidth is a task well worth adding now–to save you the stress that being too busy ultimately has on your performance and well-being.